Escaping from a
worldwide nuclear war, a plane full of British boys retreats to a
safe country. Halfway between England and their destination, a
violent storm strikes, leaving them marooned on a deserted island.
A fair-haired boy, Ralph, sees that he must summon all the boys on
the island to decide what they will do now that they must look
after themselves. He finds a conch shell and blows it, making the
sound echo through the trees. "We must set up rules and elect a
chief," says one of the littl'uns. "After all, we're not savages;
We're British!" Jack, a hot-tempered redhead, decides that he
should be leader. "No; Let the guy that blew the trumpet thing be
leader!" says the miniature crowd of boys. They decide to vote,
and, unanimously, Ralph wins. After time passes, the boys
instinctively become more savage. Ralph desperately tries to
maintain control over the boys, but they cannot be controlled. The
savageness results in the death of two characters. Genuine
characters and a gruesome plot make William Golding's The Lord
of the Flies frighteningly realistic.

Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon,
Roger, and Samneric all seem authentic. Their actions appear to be
made by actual people, instead of a single author. "We must build
a fire at the top of the mountain in case a ship passes our
island," says Ralph.

As fear and superstition set
in, Jack exclaims, "Look! It's the beast!"

"I remember seeing one of
those," replies Piggy, "You can blow it if you push the air from
down here," pointing to his diaphragm.

Simon, a lesser character,
even acts with a sensible person's mind, "I don't believe in the
beast. Let me try to find it." Everything the boys say, think, and
do on the island fits in perfectly with the plot.

Along with convincing
characters, the plot of this novel is incredible. Every detail is
planned out and creates an eerie, grim mood. Along with the
degeneration of the boys' society comes terrible things. The boys'
savagery appears very slowly in small acts, such as the killing of
the pigs and defiance to Ralph. The plot is so timed out that we
are taken aback when a murder is committed. Not long after Simon's
sickening death, Piggy is intentionally crushed under the weight
of a massive boulder. Nudity and bloodshed is worked into the
story line strongly enough to make us sick. The story line works
so well with the believable characters that readers grimace as the
novel unfolds.

William Golding's The
Lord of the Flies is an incredible book that cannot be written
in a more realistic manner. Characters and plot work together like
clockwork and create an exceptional story. Gruesome details are
smuggled into the plot and characters slowly deteriorate to
savages in the paperback classic. The Lord of the Flies is
constructed as a realistic horror story that takes our breath
away.